'The Originals' Charles Michael Davis: What we learned about Marcel

We are hugely excited about Vampire Diaries spinoff The Originals here at Digital Spy, and though we love the Original family, we're also intrigued about new vamp Marcel, played by the rather great Charles Michael Davis.

We know that Marcel is the vampire king of New Orleans - and that Klaus (Joseph Morgan) is going to be battling him for power - but what else is going on with the blood-sucking baron? Well, we were lucky enough to be among a group of very excited journo types who met Charles at San Diego's Comic-Con, so read on to see what we found out...

Obviously when you have an Original hybrid who's like, a gazillion years old, he's kind of hard to beat. But that's not a problem for Charles, who's just excited about the whole thing. "I thought, 'What a challenge!'" he said. "And I thought, 'Oh cool - I get to be up for that challenge'."

Things could get personal, though - it turns out that Charles and Joseph have actually known each other for "a few years". "He's great," Charles said. "We used to play poker together, so this is just a continuation of the poker. I'm all in!" Except this time, the stakes have got really high. "Life or death, literally," Charles chuckled. "It's great."

Marcel might actually kind of enjoy being tested

I suppose it's been pretty easy for Marcel, reigning over New Orleans for ages. In fact, Charles suggested that although everything's going to get shaken up by Klaus's power challenge, Marcel might revel in it. "Marcel built the town with rules, and now those rules are going to be tested," he said. "So I think it's exciting."

As exciting as, um, a massive sporting event. "It's like you prepare for the Olympics, and then it's like, 'Oh, the Olympics are here'," Charles explained. "That's unreal - you can't really prepare for that. You can't get that high any other way. And I think it's going to be an exciting kind of high for Marcel, to test his rules with an adversary like Klaus." Well, everyone does admire a rule-breaker, right?

Marcel isn't stupid - he probably knows what Klaus is up to

If Klaus thought he could keep his whole 'attempted coup' thing under wraps, he's probably wrong. "I don't think you get into a position like [Marcel's] without having a Plan A, B, C, D and E and also having one eye in the back of your head," Charles pointed out entirely reasonably. So while it might be "nice" to have Klaus back in town, his queries about that witch Jane-Anne and everything else are "starting to add up". "I think Marcel already has an eye on [him, thinking], 'This guy might have other intentions'," Charles teased. This is going to get interesting.

When we asked Charles if people will be rooting for or against Marcel, he was very clear: "I hope both!" Charles actually admitted that he "loved the bad guys" when he was growing up: "GI Joe comes on, I'm like, 'Let Cobra win!' And then in the movie it's like they killed Duke, and I was like, 'Yes, give it to them!' They always win - that's not real." So he's hoping some people will be backing Marcel, then... But Charles also suggested the show could be an "underdog story", saying: "It's not good or bad, it's just one opponent versus the other. Who's got the upper hand?"

And we might change our views on Marcel, too: "It's not about liking him or disliking him. It's just about understanding where he comes from. I think naturally you want to judge things. You want to go, 'Oh, he's charismatic, he must be a good guy', and then it's like, 'Oh, he does bad things'. But how can we like someone and then not like them so quickly? How can we put them into a box? And then with the backstory you add new dimensions and perspectives and he breaks out of the box, and I think as a viewer that's a great thing."

Actually, Charles (who previously checked he'd answered our question properly after getting "all riled up" about GI Joe) took this moment to joke that he was getting "deep and philosophical". "If you can draw your attention to Marcel's character and then go deeper into Marcel's character, it's like you can kind of understand other things," he said. "That's an exciting thing for me, and that's what really gets me charged up about, 'Oh, he's not a bad guy - he might do some seemingly bad things'." Yeah, really bad things Charles, but we'll forgive you given that we too already kind of fell in love a little bit with Marcel in the backdoor pilot...

If you thought Marcel was invincible, you'd be wrong - Charles admitted that he does have some weaknesses. "Ego," he proposed. "And confidence - overconfidence. It can allow you to cut first and measure second." Uh oh!

Why The Originals is like Training Day

Yeah, bear with us on this one. Charles told us that he drew "from different actors in different performances" for the role of Marcel - and one of those was Denzel Washington in Training Day. "There was a scene that I think could have gone a different way, and I was like, 'No, this is my moment!'" he joked. "'This is like Denzel Washington in Training Day!' Where he's talking to Ethan Hawke and he's talking to him like he's his son, like he cares about him, yet... And there was a scene like that for me. I'm not going to say which one or point it out!"

Actually, Charles praised the "freedom" on the Originals set, which sounds like it could produce some dramatic effects. "I was used to getting notes afterwards from working on other shows and nobody came up to me after the first take," Charles explained. "[Joseph Morgan] was like, 'No, mate, it's okay - it means they like what you're doing'. I was like, 'Oh, they like this? Wait until they get a load of this!'" Ooh, did anyone else shiver? Anyway, Charles joked that soon they'll be begging him to rein it in, but more seriously, he said: "That's where the excitement is - I get to throw in a little ad lib here and there, I get to throw in a little something."

Marcel might be a baddie, but Charles is a softie

Marcel might be a big old baddie, but it turns out that Charles is much nicer. In fact, he raved about his time at Comic-Con at the end of our time with him. "I had a moment last night where I was like, 'Oh my God, this is so special'," he said. "Everyone's here - they come out here with their family and their friends and they camp out." At this point, Charles actually got a bit choked up! "It's really special," he added. Well, Charles, here's to many more Comic-Con's to come...